1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steam trap, and more particularly, to a steam trap in which an inlet and an outlet are formed collinearly in a body and a float for opening/closing the outlet is mounted inside the body.
2. Background of the Related Art
A steam trap, generally used in a heat exchanger, is a kind of automatic valve designed to efficiently remove condensate generated by condensation of steam in a drum or a pipe while preventing the leakage of live steam.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,630,633 and 5,065,785 disclose steam traps. In these conventional steam traps, a bucket is formed to move by steam and condensate within a case and a vent is provided at one side of the top of the bucket. The bucket closes an outlet using the force of introduced steam, and the outlet is opened due to the weight of the bucket after steam escapes from the inside of the case through the vent. Through periodic repetition of those operations, steam and condensate are exhausted.
In general, such a steam trap is designed to exhaust condensate generated in a pipe. The conventional steam trap having the bucket formed within the case periodically performs repetitive operations regardless of generation of condensate, and exhausts condensate contained therein only through the shaking of the bucket, resulting in much leakage of steam.
For example, in a laundry, the escape of steam from a chimney is caused due to problems associated with a conventional bucket-type steam trap. In addition, a boiler should operate continuously due to the loss of steam caused in the conventional bucket-type steam trap at the time of setting steam pressure of the boiler, leading to a vast loss of energies such as gas, electricity, water, and so forth required for operating the boiler.
Moreover, the life span of the boiler and peripheral devices is shortened due to the continuous operation of the boiler, and the capacity of the boiler generally exceeds the amount used.
To address the disadvantage of the conventional bucket-type steam trap, such a steam trap with a float as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,091 has been developed and used. In the steam trap disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,091, an exit opening and an inlet opening are formed perpendicularly to each other so that condensate flows from the inside of a machine or a lower portion of a steam outlet to the steam trap and is then exhausted. However, if the height of the machine is low, the steam trap is not available and the laying of exhaust pipes becomes complicated. Moreover, since a structure of a valve plug for closing the outlet opening is unreasonable, it is difficult to accurately close the outlet opening. Furthermore, a float should be located far apart from a pin (hinge) to obtain buoyancy overcoming the weight of the valve plug, an arm, the float and so on, which results in a relative increase in the size of the steam trap as compared to its capacity, leading to an increase in the manufacturing cost.